Dabbler Notes

Terry Wogan was only eight years older than David Bowie, but his soul was ancient...
To my surprise, I felt slightly sadder about Terry Wogan’s death than about David Bowie’s.
The thing about Wogan was that he was devoid of illusion about humans. He’d seen right through us, to the core, decades ... Read More...

The digital revolution, Ray Winstone and the Ladbrokes Life have ruined gambling. It’s time to fight back…
Until fairly recently, debates about The Golden Age of Pop Music have been about whether it ended in the 60s or 70s or 80s or 90s. But as I argued here, it is absurd ... Read More...

There's more to the wall-to-wall coverage than Bowie's artistic brilliance, reckons Gaw.
About fifteen years ago a colleague told me this story. He and a mate were walking down a New York street when a pop star in an open-topped car crawled past. It looked like John Taylor so, being young ... Read More...

Did you catch a glimpse of a truly horrible painting in the BBC's And Then There Were None?...
I thought the BBC’s adaptation of And Then There Were None, shown over Christmas, was excellent – it successfully brought to the screen the sick imagination of its author. The mind of Agatha ... Read More...

Happy New Year! Here's how not to be happy...
It may only be the start of January but it's unlikely that 2016 will see a more remarkable 'what I've learnt' self-interview piece than this one from the hypnotist Paul McKenna in The Guardian.
Selected highlights:
I wish I could be zen and say ... Read More...

How Methodism leads to Bedlam...
misfortunes, troubles, disappointments, grief...206
family/heredity......................................................115
fevers......................................................................110
religion and methodism........................................90
childbed...................................................................79
love..........................................................................74
drink.........................................................................58
fright.........................................................................51
study.........................................................................90
These figures are for 'Lunacy by Cause' in a table published by the apothecary of the Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam) towards the end of the 18th century. I came across it in The Air Loom Gang, Mike Jay's fascinating study of the ... Read More...

This video is an hour long, but I can assure you that it flies by, because Nick Cohen speaks like a man whose hour has come. Watch it if you want to understand the perverse dynamics of current Western politics.
I have to admit that a few years ago I was ... Read More...

They don't make kids' cartoons like this any more...
While researching a piece on meanings and adaptations of well-known fairytales, I found this 1943 MGM cartoon directed by Tex Avery, the existence of which has lurked in the back of my mind for a while, even though my conscious mind could ... Read More...

What is a melody, and why are good ones so hard to write?...
In The Guardian Clive James writes:
It could be said that Adele is Mama Cass born again, but she needs a song to match her voice. I have listened several times to her smash hit, Hello. I was hoping that the shapely beauty ... Read More...